Pharaoh Mountain

"My first hike of the day. I came in from the Crane Road parking lot. Flat approach, then some ascent. Beautiful directional view to the west from the summit. I headed back down and went off to hike my second peak of the day." — newenglandwarrior • Sep 17, 2024

"11mile hike to Pharaoh Mountain with Cathy and my hunny Lisa to finish up my 29er hiking challenge. Perfect day meaundering within the trees. Summit has many viewpoints around its partial treed summit. Another perfect day in the woods" — ramjet1963 • Sep 3, 2024

"GPS'd this at 6.11M from Crane Pond! Yes, you can drive all the way to Crane Pond! Make sure you've got a pretty good clearance 4 wheel drive. The creek crossing is AWESOME. The hike is uneventful, except for some pond views, for the first 2 miles. Then the work begins and up ya' go with lots of roots. Rained 2/3 of the day and I hiked in trail streams for at least 3 miles. I was drenched and had no view at the summit. Checked out the old fire tower base and the geo marker and headed back down. " — Retiredtop2004 • Jul 18, 2021

"The views on Pharaoh were way more beautiful than I anticipated. There were multiple lookouts along the mountain top offering a variety of views to take in from all directions. The trail was great, not too difficult although the final stretch to the summit wasn't very well marked in places. We parked at the first parking lot which added 4 miles to our day. " — DeliriumTrigger • Aug 26, 2020

"A day out for the pups, although hotter than we thought. Parked at the lot for Crane Pond and walked the road to crane Pond where we found a DEC Officer putting out a campfire - in the parking lot - that was left unattended. It was a quiet day and the pups enjoyed the trails (and the marshes) along the way. Roughly 1500 ft of gain via the Pharaoh Mtn trail (in and out) and ~ 10.1 miles with a few small side trips to let the pups swim." — deb-and-rob • Aug 8, 2020

"Beautiful day, cold, snow but not deep enough, only needed micro-spikes to complete this hike. Had a buddy with me that we haven't hiked together in 30 years so it was a great time for us! He hasn't been in the game in that long and he greatly enjoyed getting back into it and hopes to continue! Clear skies at the summit but breezy and cold. Got some great photos and got out of the wind quickly." — hbotc • Dec 21, 2019

"Tons of bugs but otherwise a great walk. Parked in the first lot on Crane Pond Road, but realistically could have driven all the way down to the lot where the red-blazed trail begins, cutting off about 1.9 miles of road-walking each way." — nairon • Jul 4, 2019

"With rain in the forecast for Saturday we were looking for something the dogs would enjoy that didn't require any big crossings - so we decided on another visit to Pharaoh. There are a lot of trails to choose from, we decided to head in from Crane Pond and do the loop trail. Throughout the day we would climb ~1950' over the 15 mile loop and enjoy true northeast Spring weather with some snow, sleet, rain and sun!" — deb-and-rob • Apr 27, 2019

"A good hike to start the summer season. Took the babies with us. A little wet and slippery on the trail, had heavy rain the day before. Sky had some overcast but views were still pretty good. A nice warmup!" — hbotc • Jun 2, 2018

"Hiked with Kellie. Started out around 8:45 from the first parking area. The 2 mile road walk to the final parking area at Crane Pond was nothing special. Once into the woods on the actual trail there were tons of mosquitos, but very few if any black flies. We encountered tons of black flies on the summit, which forced us to only spend a couple minutes up there before returning the same way we ascended. Weather was warm, humid, and cloudy. Still nice to get a hike in. " — LGH-Tom • May 26, 2018